Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Deficit hawk climate deniers don't care for future generations

by David Atkins

The President scored an obvious win over the Mitt Romney in last night's debate. Hopefully the few remaining undecideds will see the difference between a proven leader and a conniving fraud in hock to the plutocrats.

But the real loser in the whole series of debates was the entire human race, along with every other species on the planet.

Across six hours of Presidential and Vice-Presidential debates, the number of times climate change was mentioned? Zero.

Each and every one of these deficit-obsessed politicians claims that we must deal with the supposedly urgent problem so that future generations are not saddled with the selfish, poor choices of the current one. They insist that unless we destroy our safety net and slow down our economy even further, we are poor economic stewards for the long term. This concern for the future is said to be so crucial that it must be mentioned 72 times in the course of six hours of policy debates.

And yet, the issue of climate change is supposed to be so low on the priority list that it doesn't even merit a single mention. Not one. Not even though the damage done by a warming climate is far, far, far in excess of one nation's potential currency devaluations and tax hikes. Even though future generations will suffer catastrophe for decades after our current deficits are a distant historical footnote. And even though investment in renewable energy technologies will actually help improve our current and future economic outlook.

The reality is that people who work themselves into a lather over deficits while ignoring the very real problem of climate change don't care a whit about the fate of future generations. They're simply demagoguing a largely soluble non-issue to create an excuse for handing social insurance programs over to Wall Street, and for shredding what little is left of discretionary spending in order to ensure a cheap, desperate labor force with low tax rates for the wealthy.

Deficit hawks who don't have equal concern about climate change care about the investment portfolios of the plutocratic class. But the future of the American people and the human race is quite possibly the last thing on their minds.